Iraq slams death sentence on ISIS deputy, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after he was captured in Turkey

On Wednesday, an Iraqi court sentenced to death on terror charges a
prominent jihadist described as a deputy of Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after he was captured in Turkey.

Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi was hunted down,
caught and extradited after a joint operation involving Turkish, Iraqi
and US intelligence agencies, according to the Iraqi authorities.

“The Karkh criminal court in Baghdad sentenced to death by
hanging one of the most prominent leaders of IS, who served as a deputy
of Baghdadi,” judicial spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said.

The Iraqi authorities announced in February that Ithawi had been
extradited from Turkey after fleeing first Iraq and then Syria as the
group’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumbled. A senior Iraqi official
told AFP at the time that the arrest came after an elite Iraqi unit
“infiltrated the highest levels” of IS, which has claimed a string of
deadly attacks in the West in recent years. It was the first time Iraqi
authorities managed to have a top leader of IS extradited from Turkey.

A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Ithawi was accused of holding
several positions including IS “minister” in charge of religious edicts
and head of a IS committee that decided on senior appointments.
Originally from Iraq, his boss Baghdadi has been dubbed the “most wanted
man on the planet” and the United States is offering a $25 million
reward for his capture. Baghdadi has been pronounced dead on several
occasions, but an Iraqi intelligence official said in May that he
remained alive in Syrian territory by the Iraqi border.

In a purported new audio recording released last month, the IS chief
called on Muslims to wage “jihad”. He made his only known public
appearance in Iraq’s second city of Mosul in July 2014.

Iraq slams death sentence on ISIS deputy, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after he was captured in Turkey
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September 20, 2018
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